I will be the first to say that I appreciate the convenience of map software that we get to carry in our pocket on our phones – it definitely beats carrying big paper maps around! That said, the convenience of it does sometimes draw us to be more dependent on these mapping apps than we maybe should be. 🙂
When Google Maps Messes Up
I have a Garmin GPS I use whenever I drive anywhere but do often use Google Maps as well. I especially use Google Maps if I am out on a long run or on a run in a different city. It lets me see my different options for roads around me if I need to add some miles and I do not want to turn around right away when I reach a dead end.
This is the road Google Maps said I was on…
Such a situation presented itself yesterday on my long run. I decided to keep running and climb this one ascent in the area (bigger than a hill but not a mountain). I figured I could pick the road up and swing around after a while to rejoin my road. So, I pulled up Google Maps on my phone and checked out the roads in the area. Thankfully, I found what I was looking for and took off for the road – however, it was not a road at all. In fact, I do not think it had ever been a road. You couldn’t even call it a trail! So, I did get to run a little bit of a “trail” for a while thanks to Google Maps and their map data mess up, but I know that was not Google’s intention at all!
…this is not a road!
At least I got to enjoy this view!!!
A beautiful view
Have you relied on a mapping app and been led astray?
Agree that we sometimes become a bit too dependent on these maps. I hardly do any planning ahead now, navigation-wise, expecting always to be able to just punch in the destination on Google Maps. That didn’t work so well yesterday, as I was in a location with just 2-3 bars of EDGE service, and Google Maps refused to find a route no matter how long we waited. So we finally drove around for a bit until we got 4G service, at which point Google Maps came back to life and my world made sense again!
On the positive side, Google Maps has absolutely revolutionized traveling abroad – whether by car or public transport, especially when combined with T-Mobile’s free international roaming. It’s little short of life-changing. Bye-bye to asking for directions or figuring out public transit maps through a language barrier.